Decision details

A new contract for the three years 2011-2014 for services to be delivered by Bath Festivals Ltd is to be agreed.  Services to be delivered by Bath Festivals Ltd comprise: Bath International Music Festival, Bath Literature Festival, and a year-round education and learning programme.

The Cabinet Member agrees that the Council awards a three-year contract to Bath Festivals for the financial years 2011-2014 for delivery of the services specified in the contract

The Council has allocated an Arts Development budget and staff to administer and deliver the activity.  The Council has a published commitment to ensuring that the majority of its Arts Development budget is used for commissioning external organisations through contracts (Bath Festivals) or grants (smaller voluntary arts organisations).

Officers advised that Bath Festivals is the organisation best-placed to deliver a significant and sustainable programme of festivals and related activity for public benefit (as specified in the contract, Appendix 1 refers), being the unique supplier of the two named festivals and their associated education programme.  Bath Festivals will do this by working in partnership with other arts organisations and the private sector. 

Since 2003, the Council has worked closely with Bath Festivals and its predecessor, Bath Festivals Trust, to ensure that the organisation is fit for purpose, financially robust, supported effectively by its Board with good governance, and delivering on Council priorities.  Officers will continue to set, and enforce, high expectations of performance and contract compliance throughout the new contract period. 

As a consequence of the Council’s previous investment of time and resources, Bath Festivals has performed well on all service targets and shown positive progress and development over the past two years.

The award of this contract for 2011-2014 represents a timely and appropriate investment of resources, procured from the most appropriate contractor, which will enable the Council to derive both direct and indirect benefit from the services provided.

Bath Festivals is the sole supplier of the services specified in the contract (Bath International Music Festival, Bath Literature Festival, Year-round Education programme) and has intellectual copyright on the titles of both festivals.  If the contract were not awarded to Bath Festivals, it would be very likely that the two festivals and their associated activity would cease to exist, certainly in their present form and scale.  This would attract negative press coverage at local and national level, would result in considerable public outcry, and could significantly damage the Council’s reputation. 

If the contract were not awarded to Bath Festivals, the Council could decide to re-allocate the resultant saving of resources to procuring contracted services from other arts organisations and/or providing grants to arts organisations.  Whilst this was clearly an option, Officers advised that the risks outlined above are too significant for this option to be considered at the present time. 

The contract would again be renewable for 2014 onwards, and a mid-way review of the contractor’s performance will take place in autumn 2012 which will enable officers to consider all risks and options in light of Council priorities and the likely available resources for 2014 onwards.

A further option at the present time would be to award the contract but to further reduce the fee, below the figures budgeted.  Officers advised that this would be counter-productive, since the ongoing financial climate already adversely affects the ability of Bath Festivals to achieve increased income from ticket sales and from other sources such as sponsorship and private donations.  Consequently further disinvestment by the Council would be unnecessarily damaging.

Officers therefore advised that the recommendation put forward will ensure both the best value for money and a high quality of work to be delivered to residents of the local authority area.